The text before you is a study ofthe problematic issue ofmental causation: causation by minds. On hearing the expression 'mental causation, ' you may at first think ofsomething like bending spoons by 'psychic' powers. But no, we are dealing here with something much more puzzling: doing things for reasons, i. e., what we call agency. Psychic spoon-bending would be a fairly straightforward issue. You just exert some psychic force and bend a spoon, just like you might bend it by hand, i. e., by physical force. The only trouble here is that psychic forces may not be in fact available '. But now...

The text before you is a study ofthe problematic issue ofmental causation: causation by minds. On hearing the expression 'mental causation, ' you may at first think ofsomething like bending spoons by 'psychic' powers. But no, we are dealing here with something much more puzzling: doing things for reasons, i. e., what we call agency. Psychic spoon-bending would be a fairly straightforward issue. You just exert some psychic force and bend a spoon, just like you might bend it by hand, i. e., by physical force. The only trouble here is that psychic forces may not be in fact available '. But now...